Princess (3 page)

The next morning, Charles decided to try an experiment. Maybe Princess wasn’t
really
all that spoiled. After all, he hadn’t baby-talked when he’d called her to dinner and she’d still come right away. For breakfast, instead of following the List, he just gave Princess a small serving of Baxter’s Beefy Chunks in a regular cereal bowl.

Princess ran right over when he called her. But she took one sniff at the bowl and backed away. She sat down on her tiny behind and barked.

You’ve got to be kidding me! What is that stuff?

Charles got the message. He scraped the food into Buddy’s dish (Buddy had already gobbled
down his portion) and started over. He found the leftover Marvelous Morsels in the fridge and plopped a couple of spoonfuls into the cereal bowl. “Okay?” he said, putting it down for Princess.

The tiny puppy tippy-toed over to take another sniff. She backed off again and barked some more.

I don’t think so. It’s cold, it’s lumpy, and it’s in the wrong dish.

Charles picked up the bowl, scraped the food into Princess’s pink flowered bowl, stuck it into the microwave for seven seconds on medium, took it out, mashed the food carefully with a fork, and put it down on the pink flowered place mat.

This time, Princess ate every last bite.

By the time Aunt Amanda came to pick him up for their Reading With Rover session, Charles had to admit he was feeling just a little bit
overwhelmed by all the work needed to take care of Princess.

“Take
care
of?” Aunt Amanda asked as they drove to the library in her van. Bowser, the golden retriever, was sitting in the way-back. “More like
spoil.
That dog is spoiled, no two ways about it. Angela babied her, and now that’s what she’s used to. It’s going to take a whole lot of work to change Princess into a dog that anyone would want to adopt.”

Charles groaned. “I know,” he said. “She’s so cute and smart and fun. I really like her! But who would want to take her the way she is now?” He groaned again. “I know Mom and the rest of the family won’t put up with her for very long. I’m going to have to find her a forever home as soon as I can. And I can’t imagine sending Princess to an animal shelter the way she is now, even one as nice as Caring Paws.”

“Well, maybe I can help come up with some training ideas,” Aunt Amanda said. “I’m sure she
can learn to be less spoiled. But right now, we have another job to do.” She pulled up in front of the library. “Ready, Bowser?” she said, turning around to look at the big, copper-colored dog.

Bowser gave a happy bark and wagged his tail. Bowser was always glad to do anything Aunt Amanda wanted him to do. He was such a good boy.

Another car drove up as Charles waited for Aunt Amanda to clip on Bowser’s leash. It was a red sports car, old and rusty but with a cool convertible top that was down, so Charles could see two people — and a dog — riding in it. “Hey there!” the driver said, popping open the door and hopping out. “You here for the program, too?” He stuck out his hand for a shake. “I’m Harry, and that’s Zeke.”

He pointed to a huge chocolate-brown Labrador retriever with a red bandanna around his neck. Charles had seen that dog around town before. He also recognized Harry, because Harry played
second base for the high-school baseball team. Charles had been to a few of their games with his dad, and everybody in the bleachers had been talking about Harry. Dad said he was a “master of the double play.” Harry was a good batter, too. Charles remembered one long, high home run that had practically landed on the school roof!

“Hi,” Charles said, feeling kind of grown-up as he shook Harry’s hand. “I’m Charles. That’s my aunt Amanda, and her dog Bowser. I’m just helping.”

“Cool.” Harry turned back to the car. “Coming, Nathaniel?” The little boy in the backseat was busy unclipping his seat belt. He didn’t look up. “That’s my cousin Nathaniel,” Harry told Charles. “I tried to get him to read to Zeke, but Nathaniel’s kind of quiet, and Zeke is — well, Zeke is energetic. We decided Nathaniel should come along with me and try another dog.”

“Bowser might be perfect,” Aunt Amanda said. “He’s really mellow.”

“Excellent!” Harry clipped a black leather leash onto Zeke’s collar and opened the car door so the big dog could charge out. Charles stepped back to give him room. Nathaniel climbed out of the car and closed the door carefully, then stood close to Harry, looking down at his own red sneakers. When Zeke tried to give him a big, sloppy kiss, Nathaniel flinched and moved even closer to Harry.

Charles thought of the way the Bean used to try to hide behind Mom’s legs when he was feeling shy. He almost expected Nathaniel to stick his thumb into his mouth, like the Bean used to do. But Nathaniel was not a baby. Charles thought he must be at least five: That seemed too old for thumb-sucking.

“Well, let’s go meet everybody!” Harry said. He strode toward the library, with Nathaniel trotting to keep up.

Charles watched Zeke amble along next to Harry. Now that was what Lizzie would consider
a
real
dog. Harry probably wouldn’t think much of a spoiled little brat like Princess. Charles reached out to take Bowser’s leash while Aunt Amanda put her car keys in her pocketbook.

It was funny to walk right into the library with a dog. Usually, dogs had to stay outside, tied to a tree or the bike rack while their owners returned books. Even the annual pet show, sponsored by the children’s room at the library, took place outside in the courtyard. But today was different. Today, dogs were specially invited.

The children’s room was one of Charles’s favorite places. First of all, there were all the books you could ever want to read, just sitting there patiently, waiting for you to find them. Second, there were lots of cozy nooks and corners where you could curl up with a book if you wanted to start reading right away, before you even took it home. Third, the librarians were really, really nice. Like Nancy, who greeted Charles and Aunt Amanda as they came in. “Welcome!” she said.
“This must be” — she checked her list — “Bowser? Is that right?”

Bowser woofed and wagged his feathery tail. He was always happy to hear his name.

“Great! Right this way!” Nancy led them to an alcove where the other dogs and people were gathering. “I think we’re all here, then,” she said, “so I’ll read off this list of partners and you can all get down to the business of reading!” She checked a sheet of paper in her hand. “Harry and Zeke, you’ll read with Simon.”

Harry stood up and waved a hand. “That’s us,” he said. “I’m Harry, and this is Zeke.”

“Yeah!” A chubby redheaded boy in overalls jumped up and ran over to fling his arms around Zeke. Zeke’s tail thumped the floor as he licked the boy’s cheek. In a second, the two were rolling around happily on the carpet.

“Simon!” Nancy said. “I’m glad you like Zeke, but let’s save the wrestling match for another time and place. Today is for reading.”

Charles and Aunt Amanda smiled at each other. Zeke had found the perfect partner.

“Amanda and Bowser,” Nancy went on, “you’ll read with Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel didn’t run over the way Simon had. He stayed where he was, looking down at the floor. But he did manage a tiny smile when Charles brought Bowser over to meet him. Charles was pretty sure that Nathaniel liked dogs. He suspected he was just a little overwhelmed by them, that was all.

That morning, it was Charles who did most of the reading. Since Nathaniel was a little too shy to read out loud to Bowser, Charles sat down next to the big, happy dog and read him story after story. Bowser’s head was in Aunt Amanda’s lap, and Nathaniel sat nearby, listening. Once in a while, Nathaniel would reach out and give Bowser a little pat.

“I think Bowser liked
Good Night, Gorilla,
the
best,” Nathaniel whispered at the end of the session.

“Maybe next time
you
can read to Bowser,” Aunt Amanda said.

“Maybe.” Nathaniel did not sound very sure about that. But Charles was sure of one thing: Being a part of Reading With Rover was going to be lots of fun.

“One lady brought a corgi, and there was a big, huge dog — maybe some kind of St. Bernard mix, and oh, the
cutest
dog was this miniature poodle. Pearl, her name was. She can do all kinds of tricks. I bet she could be in a circus or something.”

“What color was the big dog?” Lizzie asked as she passed a heaping platter of spaghetti and meatballs to her dad.

It was dinnertime, and Charles was telling the rest of the family about his excellent day with Aunt Amanda at the Reading With Rover program. Buddy and Princess had already had their dinners, and now they were napping — Buddy under the table and Princess in her pink palace, over in the corner.

Charles shook his head. Lizzie had asked about the other dogs at the program. Trust her to zoom in on the one big dog he had mentioned. “It was mostly white, with some brown patches. The miniature poodle was black. You should have
seen
Pearl when she jumped —”

But Lizzie just wasn’t very interested in hearing about a little dog. “How about Bowser?” she interrupted. “Did he have a good time?”

“Definitely.” Charles picked one cherry tomato and three chunks of cucumber out of the salad bowl. If he was lucky, that would count as his vegetable.

“Add a piece of green pepper and you’ve got a deal,” his dad said, as if he were reading Charles’s mind.

That sounded fair. Charles picked out the smallest piece of green pepper he could find. “Bowser
loved
being around all the people. And everybody loved him, too. Except Nathaniel, maybe. I think Nathaniel was a tiny bit afraid of Bowser.”

“Afraid of Bowser?” Lizzie couldn’t believe it. “Sweet old
Bowser
?”

“Not everybody loves all dogs the way you do, Lizzie,” her mom reminded her. “Some people think dogs, especially big dogs, are a little scary.”

“Boooo!” said the Bean, raising up his hands like he was haunting someone. “Scary!”

“Not scary like a ghost,” Charles told his little brother. He understood what his mom was saying. “Scary like — well, just scary. Like they think maybe the dog will knock them over, or bite them, or something. Anyway —” He was about to say that he thought Nathaniel would probably get used to Bowser soon, but he was interrupted by Buddy.

Buddy, who was putting his paw up on Charles’s knee.

At dinnertime.

Buddy was begging.

Buddy
never
did that. When Mom and Dad had
agreed that the family could keep Buddy, there had been a few conditions. One of them was “no begging.” Dad said he hated when dogs begged, because it meant he couldn’t eat his own dinner in peace. So the family rule was that nobody
ever
fed Buddy — not even one eensy, minuscule molecule of food — from the table. That way, they never rewarded him for begging, so he never really even tried.

Now, for the first time, here was Buddy, begging. He had a paw on Charles’s knee. He had an innocent, adorable
I’m so hungry, please feed me
look in his big brown eyes. And he was even drooling a little bit!

Charles looked over at Buddy’s dish. How hungry could he be? He hadn’t even finished his whole dinner. “What’s up, pal? Tired of Beefy Chunks?” He was joking, but Buddy ran over to sniff Princess’s empty dish and then ran back to whine, and paw, and give Charles the “feed me” look. Charles realized that what Buddy
wanted wasn’t just any food. Buddy wanted some of the food
Princess
had been eating. Buddy wanted Marvelous Morsels.

Please, please? It smells so good I can hardly stand it when she’s eating next to me! I want some, too! Please? Please?

Uh-oh.

“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Dad was frowning as he pointed his fork at Buddy. “Is that dog
begging?”

“I knew it, I just knew it,” said Lizzie. “He’s learning bad habits from that spoiled brat Princess.”

At the sound of her name, Princess woke up and poked her head out of the palace door. She blinked a little, then barked.

What was that about me? Did I hear my name? Of course you’re talking about me, but how about
keeping down the noise? Can’t a puppy get some sleep around here?

“Just wait,” Lizzie warned. “If he spends much more time around her, Buddy will turn into a yappy dog, just like Princess.”

Princess barked again at the sound of her name.

“Really, Lizzie,” Mom said. “Princess isn’t that bad.”

“No, she isn’t!” Charles said. Why couldn’t Lizzie learn to love Princess? “She’s cute, and she’s really smart, and —”

Just then, Buddy let out three little barks and put his
other
paw up on Charles’s knee. Lizzie made a
“See?”
face, and Charles trailed off. What if Princess really
was
teaching Buddy bad habits? He had to find this spoiled — but wonderful — puppy a forever home. And he had to do it soon.

It was Saturday, and Aunt Amanda and Charles were on their way to the library for the second Reading With Rover session. It had been a little over a week since the tiny Yorkie had come to live with Charles and his family, and the truth was that the Petersons had just about had it with Princess.

Dad said Princess was a good teacher — “a little
too
good” — when it came to the way she had taught Buddy to beg for special treats.

Lizzie was sick of Princess always having to be the center of attention.

Mom was tired of moving Princess’s palace all over the house, from the living room, where she napped during the day, to Charles’s room, where she slept at night, to the porch, where she had
to have it as a resting place during outdoor playtime.

The Bean was acting cranky because
he
wasn’t getting enough attention.

Buddy was acting naughty for the same reason.

As for Charles? Charles still liked Princess a lot. But he had to admit that he wished he had never seen the List. He could not believe how complicated it could be to take care of one tiny puppy.

It seemed like Charles had been spending almost all his free time making sure that Princess was happy. Now, even on Saturday, when he had thought he might be enjoying a little break from taking care of Princess, he was not. True, he was with Aunt Amanda. True, they were on their way to the library. But this time, Bowser was not the only dog in the back of Aunt Amanda’s van. This time, Princess was there, too, tucked inside her pink palace.

Princess wasn’t coming to be part of Reading
With Rover. For one thing, she hadn’t been to the training program. For another, it would be too distracting for the kids to have an extra dog on hand. No, Princess was just along for the ride.

It was cool enough outside so she would be safe waiting in the van, as long as it was parked in the shade with the windows cracked open, while Charles and Amanda were in the library. (Charles knew you should
never
leave a dog in a car with the windows up. The inside of a closed-up car can get way too hot for a dog, even if it’s not hot outside.)

And, after Reading With Rover was over, Charles and Aunt Amanda were going to take Princess over to Bowser’s Backyard for some playtime with other dogs. All of this would give the rest of the Petersons, including Buddy, a much-needed break.

Charles got a break, too. While he was at Reading With Rover, he would not have to think about how to take care of Princess. He would not
have to pay attention to picking out a bow that perfectly matched that day’s T-shirt
(FASHION: Part One)
or figuring out which leash went with which collar
(FASHION: Part Two)
. All he had to do was help Aunt Amanda.

When they got to the library, Nathaniel was already there, waiting. He looked happy to see them, even if he didn’t run over to throw his arms around Bowser. And once again, Charles ended up doing most of the reading. Nathaniel still seemed to be nervous about sitting too close to the big dog, so he sat on Aunt Amanda’s lap while Charles sat next to Bowser, stroking the dog’s long, silky ears while he read. Charles noticed Nathaniel watching, and he could tell that Nathaniel really wanted to be petting a dog, too — the little boy just wasn’t sure about Bowser yet.

All the other kids seemed to be really into reading to their dogs. Simon lay sprawled on the floor with one arm over Zeke, who was curled up next
to him. A girl with braids sat against a bookcase with the corgi’s head in her lap. Pearl, the lively miniature poodle, loved being read to so much that she actually sat still, her bright eyes focused on the face of the boy who was reading to her. And the huge St. Bernard mix was being read to by a pair of twins, two boys who had run right over the moment they were assigned to read with him. They lay on top of the enormous dog as if he were a big, furry rug, showing him the pictures as they took turns reading each page.

Charles loved reading to Bowser. He was used to reading to dogs because he read the funnies to Buddy every single Sunday. Lately, Buddy’s favorite comic was
Blondie.
Charles did silly voices for all the characters, plus he would describe what Dagwood was wearing, like pajamas with pictures of doughnuts on them, or what Dagwood was eating, like ten-story sandwiches that were
way
too big for anybody’s mouth. Buddy
always wagged his tail when he heard about the sandwiches, as if he especially loved that part.

That morning at the library, Charles was so happy reading to Bowser that he lost track of time. He was surprised when Nancy announced that it was time to finish up for the day. Nathaniel helped him stack up their books. They brought them to the librarian’s desk, and then they walked out, along with Harry, Zeke, Aunt Amanda, and Bowser.

When they got to the van, Aunt Amanda asked Charles to take Princess out for a minute, since the puppy had been waiting so long. “She’s probably bored and lonely,” she said. “I hope she wasn’t barking her head off the whole time we were inside.”

“You have another dog in there?” Harry asked. He had already put Zeke into the backseat of his own car, and Nathaniel was busy buckling himself in. “Let’s see!”

Charles hesitated. He wondered if Harry would laugh at Princess, in her
I’m beautiful
T-shirt. But he couldn’t think of a good excuse for hiding her. So when Aunt Amanda opened the back of the van, Charles reached inside Princess’s pink palace and clipped her pink, rhinestone-studded leash onto her pink, rhinestone-studded collar. Then he gathered her into his arms — she hardly weighed a thing! — and turned around to show Harry.

“This is Princess,” he said. “She’s —” He paused, trying to think of the best way to explain how spoiled she was.

But Harry jumped in before Charles could say another word. “She’s a Yorkie!” he exclaimed. “Wow! Is she cute!” He held out his arms, and Charles handed Princess over. “Oh, yes you are!” Harry said, nuzzling the puppy’s nose. “You’re the cutest, aren’t you? And you know it, too!”

Princess licked Harry’s chin and wagged her tiny tail.

The cutest? That’s me! Finally, someone who understands how very, very special I am. You deserve some kisses. Now, just make sure to keep that attention coming!

Then Harry looked up and saw Charles staring. He grinned and shrugged. “I happen to like little dogs,” he said. “Especially Yorkies. My aunt Maggie — that’s Nathaniel’s mom — loves them, too.”

Hearing Nathaniel’s name made Charles remember that the little boy was waiting for his cousin. But when he looked, Nathaniel wasn’t in Harry’s car! Charles turned around, only to find Nathaniel standing, quiet as a mouse, behind him.

The little boy was staring at Princess, and Charles recognized the look in his eyes. Nathaniel had found a dog he could love.